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Facebook acquires Ozlo to improve AI assistant Messenger offering

Facebook has acquired AI startup Ozlo to help boost the quality and presence of its AI and machine learning efforts, presumably in the shape of its Messenger personal assistant, M.

Ozlo, which was founded 2013, will be folded into the Messenger team – with most of its 30-person team linking up with Facebook in either Menlo Park, California or Seattle, Washington.

The startup specialises in helping persona assistants better understand and respond to queries. It does this through its use of both ‘probabilistic assertions alongside accepted fact’. Therefore, in theory, its technology has the ability to put Facebook’s assistant offering up there with some of the bigger players in the AI space.

“Our world-class team has built a knowledge graph containing over 2bn entities and created amazing AI technology that uses this data to understand real-world nuances,” said Ozlo on its website.

“Now, we're ready to take the next step in our journey with Messenger. By joining a team that shares our values and our vision, we will be able to continue to work on building experiences powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning. There's a lot more for us to explore ahead and we're excited to bring our technology to the Messenger community.”